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Saturday, December 26, 2015

Cathy Anderson, The Huffington Post
summarizes, "Anyone who leaves a job to start a small business knows that instead of wearing one hat at work you need to start wearing 50."

Small business owners and their teams need to upskill constantly to do all the tasks themselves. Photo: | m-gucci via Getty Images

You
cease to become a single-task employee and become the manager, the
bookkeeer, the marketer, the HR manager, the development manager and the
chief dishwasher.Joe Powell from Seek Learning
said being involved in all facets of the business usually required
upskilling, whether it was informal learning from peers and mentors or
more formal courses such as those offered by Seek.

“There are many different triggers that may prompt someone to feel it’s time to upskill,” he said. “It
could be the realisation that they are missing a skill critical to the
current success of their business -- so it’s really about gaining that
knowledge as soon as possible. “It’s certainly not a one-off
process either – as business continues to evolve, so too do the ways
operators need to work and the reality of this can mean constant
upskilling -- formal and informal -- to ensure your business is
successful in the long term.” Resources are often scarce for small business owners too, and Powell said this was why many undertook courses.“As
they’re running their own business, the more they can do themselves,
the less they’re paying for someone else to do for them, which often
helps manage the cash-flow and expenses of a small business start up,”
he said.“For small business owners there is so much they need to
be across, and it’s unrealistic for them to think they can know it all
so it’s important to consider; what can I outsource? What would I be
happy to keep doing if I can gain more skills in that area?”Powell
said courses didn’t have to be a three-year degree -- short courses,
diplomas, certificates and even volunteering could lead to a better-run
business. And studying online can help time-poor startups too -- freeing
up valuable time to actually plan and run the business rather than sit
in a classroom...Here, three business owners reveal how they retrained themselves in order to run their business.James Wakefield Co-founder of InStitchu.James Wakefield went from being an Associate Adviser in Macquarie
Private Wealth at Macquarie Bank to co-founding a men’s tailor business
after having trouble filling his own corporate wardrobe.“We were
tired of searching for high quality affordable business attire and it
turned out we weren’t the only ones,” he said. “One day a mate of mine
and (co-founder) Robin’s came home with a tailor made suit from
Thailand, and we both realised that we could do something about it and
leverage the internet to bridge the gap between high-end tailors in Asia
and consumers all over the world.”...Sebastian Pedavoli, co-founder and creative director of Proxima.Launching
a digital creative company was a logical move for Sebastian Pedavoli,
who was previously a graphic designer and project manager for a small
creative agency. But soon after he learnt there were skills he lacked.“About six months into starting my first digital creative company I realised I needed to upskill,” he said.“The
idealistic vision I had of running my own business was quickly coming
apart once I realised what was involved in actually keeping all the
balls I was juggling in the air.“I knew my craft well and where I
brought value to the business. But it’s the areas that you know exist
but don’t have a great deal of knowledge in like sales, bookkeeping and
staff management, that start to stack up and consume your time.”...David Fastuca, Chief Designer Officer & Co-founder of Locomote.So many business owners fall into an industry they never expected. Just ask David Fastuca. Before
he launched corporate travel company Locomote, he and his cousin Ross
Fastuca were in the multimedia and web design business. “We knew
we wanted our business to be related to technology and design; with Ross
being majored in multimedia design and myself in communication design,
we’ve always been interested in simplifying and enhancing the way people
interact with technology. “Locomote was our opportunity to
create a great user experience and seamless interface, unlike any other
platforms already out there.”Read more...

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Hello, my name is Helge Scherlund and I am the Education Editor and Online Educator of this personal weblog and the founder of eLearning • Computer-Mediated Communication Center.
I have an education in the teaching adults and adult learning from Roskilde University, with Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Human Resource Development (HRD) as specially studied subjects. I am the author of several articles and publications about the use of decision support tools, e-learning and computer-mediated communication. I am a member of The Danish Mathematical Society (DMF), The Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics (DSTS) and an individual member of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Note: Comments published here are purely my own and do not reflect those of my current or future employers or other organizations.